Utilisation of fly ash by synthesising FA-ZnO composite as semiconducting material

Abstract

In consideration to synthesise low value added fly ash (FA) to high value added product, an attempt has been carried out to synthesise composite materials having semiconducting properties out of the mixture of industrial waste fly ash (FA) and zinc oxide (ZnO). A series of FA-ZnO nanocomposites with the variation of FA and ZnO have been synthesised by chemical route followed by sintering at 1,300°C to produce the end product. To confer the end product, structural (XRD, FTIR) and surface morphological (TEM) studies have been carried out to identify the formation of the nanocomposites. pH level studies has been undertaken to find the feasibility of the prepared composites for different electrochemical bio sensing applications. The optical (UV-VIS) and electrical (IV) characterisations have been carried out to realise the semiconducting nature of the prepared sample. The obtained band gaps of the prepared materials are varying from 2.51 eV to 3.09 eV depending on the fly ash content in ZnO.